Program 1
Documentaries from Yamagata
(Filmmaking Workshop)
Filmmaking Workshop
A creative initiative in the Documentary Festival, the filmmaking workshop was held from October 2002 through August 2003. An open call for the workshop was announced, and while most participants were students, working adults joined in as well. Seven works were finally completed after numerous daylong sessions and meetings, and much wrangling, conflict, and instructors’ judicious use of both carrot and stick.
* All works in this program produced in 2003. Format: video.
Hand in Hand
- Sonobe Mamiko, Fukuhara Yusuke, Fujimura Yoshihiro, Hojo Atsushi, Wasada Yuko / 25 min
Depicts many kinds of communication and emotional exchange that happen through hands. Focuses on three episodes related to hands, including hands applying acupressure, hands with bitten fingertips, and hands that have taken care of the elderly for many years.
Lunch Box
- Kato Reiko, Tanaka Yusuke, Matsuura Nobuyuki, Moriyama Takuro / 15 min
It was in a booth at a family restaurant where the group finally found, after persistent searching, a fixed point for observation. As the camera moves, we hear the conversations from the restaurant’s booths. The contents of the conversations are all different. These are utterly real-life scenes from the family restaurant, a place that is usually seen as very uniform.
Knock
- Uematsu Kentaro, Kondo Yoko, Tsuge Shigebumi / 50 min
Men punching each other on the streets and in parks. To confirm they are truly living, these men express themselves through physical experience, a reality with the pain of the fist. They gradually become serious as they hit each other, intensifying the realistic feeling of attending a live match.
Kyokubushikan
- Onuma Hiromi, Okazaki Shiori, Ogawa Tomohiro, Sato Nahoko, Takagi Toshiyasu, Murayama Hideaki, Yahagi Yoshio / 50 min
A movie theater soon to be closed, and a jazz cafe slated for destruction due to relocation. The filmmakers overlap their sympathies, portraying a projectionist who worked with his father and a shopkeeper supporting himself with a side job.
Beyond Borders
- Iwabuchi Hiroki, Kim Jonfun, Sugawara Keiko, Takano Koji / 30 min
This group ventured to Iraq and Korea despite receiving not a single yen from the workshop. What kind of world did they see? What did they discover in themselves? Everything is narrated in the images.
Because She Cheers Us Up
- Ishikawa Chizuko, Ito Kanako, Kita Yudai, Shimanuki Emi, Matsumoto Miho, Yamaguchi Manabu / 23 min
There is an old lady who shops at a convenience store everyday. Her antenna for the chic and the latest info astounds even the store clerks. We wanted her to be in our film. We handed her a letter with our request, but she was unexpectedly resistant . . .
Late Summer Dance
- Oshima Chika, Sakuma Harumi, Tomono Sakura, Yamauchi Haruna, Watanabe Kyoko / 30 min
Focusing on the traditional summertime obon dance in the village where grandma and grandpa live, Late Summer Dance juxtaposes folklore and stories told by villagers and shows the limitless charm of the dance passed from generation to generation in the village.
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The 18th National Cultural Festival “YAMAGATA 2003” Documentary Festival | Program 1: Documentaries from Yamagata | Program 2: Four Major Visual Creators Buck Up Yamagata! | Program 3: Japanese Panorama |